Juventus’ inconsistent form reared its ugly head again with a 2-0 loss at Lecce, while AC Milan kept the field at bay with another win.Juve’s hopes of snatching a European berth were put in jeopardy by their latest defeat, which came ater Gianluigi Buffon was sent off at the Stadio Communale Via del Mare.The Juve captain and goalkeeper saw red in the 12th minute for handballing outside the box, and Djamel Mesbah and Andrea Bertolacci made the Old Lady pay with goals either side of half-time.Luigi Delneri sacrificed Serbian midfielder Milos Krasic to bring on reserve shot-stopper Marco Storari for Buffon, but the incident seemed to rattle Juve and Lecce took full advantage in the 31st minute through Mesbah, the Algerian steering Gianni Munari’s lobbed pass beyond Storari.The hosts doubled their advantage three minutes into the second half through Bertolacci, the 20-year-old playmaker tapping home after being played in by David Di Michele’s header.Lecce also went down to 10 men when skipper Guiseppe Vives earned a second caution 20 minutes from injury time, but Juve were unable to capitalise and fell to their fourth loss in eight league fixtures.The latest defeat leaves them 14 points adrift of Serie A leaders Milan, though Palermo and Roma’s own dire form sees Delneri’s side safe in sixth place for now.For Lecce, the win takes them four points clear of the drop zone in 16th place.Elsewhere, Milan romped to a 2-1 win over 10-man Chievo thanks to substitute striker Alexandre Pato’s 82nd minute winner.The Brazilian latched onto a through ball by Gennaro Gattuso and shimmied his way through Chievo’s defenders before unleashing a wonder strike that goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino could do little about.The valuable away win maintains Milan’s five-point gap over second-placed Inter.Lazio edged past bottom-placed Bari 1-0 at home thanks to a lone goal from Brazilian playmaker Hernanes, while Roma slumped to a third straight loss in outrageous fashion, losing 4-3 at Genoa despite leading 3-0 at the break.Rodrigo Palacio and Alberto Paloschi scored braces for the hosts in the second half, providing yet another headache for under-fire Roma boss Claudio Ranieri.Meanwhile, Udinese’s upward momentum halted with a goal-less draw at home to lowly Brescia, Fiorentina and Sampdoria fought out a scoreless stalemate and Raffaele Palladino’s 89th-minute equaliser salvaged a 2-2 draw for Parma against strugglers Cesena.
West Ham United's Benni McCarthy has been left out of South Africa's World Cup squad.
South Africa's all-time leading scorer has been criticised for his lack of fitness in the build-up to the finals and coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has left the 32-year-old out of his final 23-man squad.
Parreira revealed his decision to snub McCarthy after leaving the 78-times capped striker out of the side that thrashed Guatemala 5-0 in a warm-up match on Monday.
Three other Premier League-based players in Aaron Mokoena, Kagisho Dikgacoi and Steven Pienaar have all made Parreira's final squad.
"There's nothing wrong with him (Benni), we know all the players we need by now," he said after the warm-up victory.
"It's a daily assessment and we're not going to judge a player on one match.
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"They all know that the decision is coming and I would say that everyone deserves to be in the squad but, unfortunately, that cannot happen."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email
Arsenal are poised to make a move for Ajax right-back Gregory van der Wiel, according to Mirror Football.
The north London outfit have already signed Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud this summer as they look to get back into contention for the Premier League title, with a deal for Santi Cazorla also thought to be close.
The Netherlands international is in the last year of his contract at Ajax, and has impressed at both domestic level and for the Oranje.
Newcastle and Chelsea have both been accredited with an interest in Van de Wiel also, but Arsenal are considering making a £7 million bid for the defender.
Arsene Wenger hopes that the club’s efforts to sign new players in the transfer window will show wantaway striker Robin van Persie the side’s ambition, and hopefully help to change the forward’s decision to leave the Emirates Stadium.
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It’s always an exciting time when a young player breaks through the ranks ready to take the world by storm. A product of your clubs own breeding bursting at the seams to run out onto the hallowed home turf and perform in front of the fans sitting in the seat where he used to only a few years prior.
Yes there is always a tangible optimism that sweeps around a football club and a city when a young player makes the breakthrough into the first team and is hailed as the man to fill the bare trophy cabinet with silver wear aplenty. Subsequently people rush to the bookies t0 put the obvious bet on that he will go on to captain his country and lift the World Cup.
All of those prophesied moments before the young prodigy has even laced up their boots and kicked a ball cause a buzzing sensation of hope sweeping around. But with so many young players these days only a handful actually go on to live up to expectations and fulfil the potential scouts saw in them when they were just starting to play the beautiful game.
There have been so many stories of players down the years being touted as the next big thing only to fall so far into obscurity that people barely even remember their name. It’s always saddening to see a player with so much promise easily slip into the darkness and find themselves warming the substitutes bench or plying their trade in the lower divisions. Some may say they are given too much too soon!
Injuries, wealth and just a general lack of desire are just some of the factors that contribute to the downfall of some of the Premier Leagues most talented younger players.
I decided to compile a list of the ten players that I thought failed to build on the promise seen in them during their younger days!
Click on Matt Jansen to unveil the list
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New Racing Santander owner Ahsan Ali Syed intends to compete with Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Syed’s Western Gulf Advisory group purchased Racing on January 22, but with the club an unremarkable 13th in the La Liga table, they are unlikely to challenge the top two this season.
Racing have never won a trophy in their 98-year history and are relative minnows compared to the illustrious outfits at the Camp Nou and the Santiago Bernabeu.
But Indian businessman Syed – who was linked with a takeover of English Premier League club Blackburn Rovers in 2010 – has lofty ambitions for the future of his latest investment.
“When La Liga is watched all across the world today, the first two teams that come to mind are Real Madrid or Barca,” Syed said.
“So I am sure there is a place for a third one. That is what global recognition is all about.”
“As I have already said in public, I will provide everything possible to see Racing grow in the world of football.”
“But I think that for more than financial investments it will require a lot of other investments, intellectual investments. It will require a lot of talent in the team.”
“That does not necessarily mean that if you are very aggressive, with huge money pouring in the club, the club will do wonders. That is not the case.”
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“But I personally feel that I want to make this club grow slowly, steadily but strongly, so that it can sustain whatever position it reaches for a longer time.”
“I want to make Racing a timeless institution in years to come.”
Cast your minds back to 19 October 2010, a time that marked perhaps the most turbulent week off-the-pitch for Manchester United in recent years. A delusional Wayne Rooney voices his intentions to leave arguably the greatest club side in the world because he wasn’t given any assurances about the future of the squad. The world gasps, Barcelona and Real Madrid immediately announce their interest whilst Sir Alex Ferguson is declared clinically ‘dumbfounded’.
However just days later normality is resumed when Rooney signs a bumper new deal, which will see him remain at Old Trafford for a further five years as the club’s highest earner. Ferguson breathes a sigh of relief as ‘Wazza’ attributes his bizarre behaviour to his meddling agent and other ‘outside influences’, proving that he can pass blame almost as well as he can pass the ball. The fallout is significant, Rooney is quickly welcomed back into the arms of his supporters with his reputation relatively intact whilst the rest of country accepts that ‘power plays’ are now a prominent feature in modern football.
Since then we’ve seen Cesc Fabregas’ tear-soaked plea to Arsene Wenger rewarded with a move home to Barcelona and Carlos Tevez worm his way back into the title-winning Manchester City squad after effectively going on strike. Are football clubs merely puppets for their prized superstars or do the employers still hold all the cards in such situations?
Fans of long, drawn out transfer sagas have been rewarded with not one but two shining examples in North London this summer. Robin Van Persie is eyeing up one last ‘big’ move after questioning Arsenal’s ambition whilst Luka Modric is very keen on becoming the latest Galactico, but I think he’d settle for Champions League football. Despite the players differing contract situations, both parent clubs have stonewalled any potential move unless a certain valuation is met. A refreshing stance in the eyes of many, especially as many buying clubs seem to believe that a player’s desire to leave somehow reduces their market value.
In my opinion the transfer value of a footballer is dictated solely by how important or valuable they’re to their current club, which is why we see players leave for peanuts when they’re no longer wanted and extortionate sums if they are. Of course there are other contributing factors but this is the reason Andy Carroll was ‘worth’ £35m and you can acquire Dimitar Berbatov for a paltry £5m.
In the case at Arsenal, Wenger is understandably reluctant to let his star striker join a league rival, all the while signing players that make Van Persie’s ‘ambition’ comments look rather futile. Unfortunately Arsenal are still a far cry from title contenders, which is therefore unlikely to deter the Dutchman in his quest to leave. Wenger has undoubtedly learnt a great deal since watching a smug Samir Nasri lift the Premier League title with Manchester City.
Over at White Hart Lane, new manager Andre Villas-Boas appears to have found his perfect partner in the form of chairman Daniel Levy. Villas-Boas suffered a torrid time at Chelsea as key players within the squad staged a mutiny but because of Levy’s strict leadership, he is unlikely to endure a similar fate this season. Both men boast a stubborn approach when it comes to rogue individuals, which should provide the foundations for a successful period in the wake of ‘pally’ manager Harry Redknapp.
Speaking of Redknapp, the currently unemployed wheeler-dealer was one of many individuals to voice their concern about player power in the aftermath of the Rooney saga in 2010.
“I worry about it with kids now. We’ve ended up in a situation where you give young kids long contracts now, for fear of losing them. They come in here at 17; suddenly they get a four- or five-year contract.
“They’ve got their feet under the table; they can go and do what they want; they’re getting plenty of money. When you’re dealing with top players, it’s a difficult one. When you’re dealing with kids, I personally would take a chance on losing them.”
“If they don’t want to stay at your club, well okay, fine.” (Telegraph)
Sir Alex Ferguson would appear to share a similar view, having refused to bow down the demands of young starlets Ravel Morrison and more recently Paul Pogba. Both players embody an ugly trend within the next generation of stars who lack both the respect and brain cells to realise how privileged they are to exist at club with United’s reputation and history.
Of course it would be naive of me to consider the impact of ‘player power’ without acknowledging the flip side of the coin. Football is a brutal business, for every dream made, hundreds are shattered as clubs continually look to trim their wage bill and offload any perceived deadwood. Should we pity the unfortunate players who suffer such harsh realities anymore than we hate those players who happen to be in demand? There are no heroes or villains in this football fairytale, only human beings driven by personal gain.
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The speculation will continue to circulate above the futures of both Modric and Van Persie, much to the delight of tabloid newspapers who appear to be the only winners in such situations. However should either player remain at their respective club once the transfer window slams shut then you can rest assured they will be back in the team come October. The reason they are perceived to have such ‘power’ stems simply for their incredible skills as a footballer, teams cannot and will not let such talent waste away in the reserves. In the same vein, few footballers will be able to cope with the humiliation of sinking below Marouane Chamakh in the pecking order.
If a week is a long time in football then a month is an eternity, which perhaps suggests player power is only worth considering in the short term. At the right time, in the right environment a player can easily bring a club to its knees but with enough determination and resilience, the club should always come out on top.
It is safe to say that money still talks in football, but perhaps one day fewer people will listen as careers go south and reputations tarnished beyond repair as a result of a transfer tantrum.
Join me on Twitter @theunusedsub where I’m hoping Wilf Zaha doesn’t end up throwing the toys out of his diamond encrusted pram
Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has expressed his concerns about hanging on to star striker Hugo Rodallega.
The Columbian striker is yet to sign a new contract at the DW Stadium and with only a year left on his current deal, Wigan are desperate to get the striker’s future resolved one way of other, so they can get some sort of fee if a new deal cannot be reached.
Both Tottenham and Liverpool sent scouts to Wigan last Saturday, however was left disappointed as he was put on the bench due to the uncertainty over his future.
Martinez is desperate to keep hold of Rodallega, but admits that he won’t stand in his way if the right offer comes in. It is believed that Wigan are holding out for £9m, a fee that is unlikely to scare off the Premier League duo.
“He is a very important part of our plans. If he does well enough, it’s only fair that we do not stand in his way if the chance of a big move comes along.
“Unless we can go on to the next level, and perhaps make it into one of the European competitions, it is impossible to keep players when they are in the best moments of their careers.
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“When you are successful at a club like Wigan, you are going to lose players. That is the reality and you have to accept it.
“I think we are prepared to lose players, allow them to move on when a big offer comes in, as we showed with Charles.” (Mirror)
There have been several men knighted for their services to football. The bloke on the training pitch at Tottenham may join them before long, apparently. Though perhaps for services to the male grooming industry. Yet if anyone should be honoured for services to fellow footballers, it has to be Jimmy Hill.
Fifty years ago last week, he won his greatest victory, when, as campaigning chairman of the PFA, the maximum wage of £20 a week was abolished. Football was cheap back in 1961. I would regularly play in front of 65,000 crowds at Stamford Bridge, who each paid two shillings and sixpence (12 and a half pence) for the privilege of seeing plenty of goals and some of the most hilarious defending in the western world. Twenty quid a week was just above the national average wage, which stood at about £16, but it only applied to first-team players. If you got injured, you could be down to little more than half of that figure and would be genuinely struggling to pay your mortgage.
While a top-flight striker and an England Under-23 international, I was still weeding the terraces at Wimbledon’s Plough Lane ground to make ends meet during the summer months. Two Chelsea team-mates, Peter Sillett and Dave Cliss, set up a window-cleaning business, buying themselves a van before they got round to realising that they shared one another’s fear of heights. Something had to give – but it needed the immense courage of Jimmy Hill and PFA secretary Cliff Lloyd to make it happen.
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When the maximum wage was finally declared illegal, players were about to go on strike. With the entire football programme about to be wiped out, a series of exhibition matches had been arranged on the Saturday afternoon for places like Hackney Marshes, at greyhound stadiums and other venues not affiliated to the FA. It would have been some spectacle and it’s a bit of a shame that the maximum wage was abolished just before we took our action. It was an extraordinary time to live through. I was convinced that the PFA would be proved right and always attended the southern branch meetings at the Great Eastern Hotel near Liverpool Street station.
The most famous story came from a northern PFA meeting, when one player spoke up against a strike by insisting that his father worked long hours down a coal mine and earned less than a footballer. To which Tommy Banks of Bolton stood up and said: “If tha father wants to mark brother Matthews on Saturday for 20 quid a week, he’s welcome to it” – we were all ‘brothers’ and ‘comrades’ at that point, even Sir Stanley.
While support for a players’ strike was supposedly unanimous, there was actually a remarkable lack of courage among many of my fellow pros, especially in the south. Many were frightened about their financial futures, short-term and long-term. Half a century on, in an era of immense player power, this is difficult to imagine. But clubs were bullies. After the maximum wage was abolished – a decision which would come into effect in the summer of 1961, just as I was leaving Stamford Bridge for AC Milan – I was fined my final week’s Chelsea pay for refusing to go on a post-season tour of Israel. The club even had me banned from playing for England against Mexico at Wembley.
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It was another couple of years before George Eastham won freedom of contract for players, so footballers continued to be bound by rules which would never have been allowed in any other industry. Fulham chairman and music-hall star Tommy Trinder made himself few friends among fellow club owners when he claimed he wanted to pay his captain Johnny Haynes £100 a week. I used to play tennis with Tommy and was well aware that Mr Trinder was somewhat backwards in coming forwards when it came to buying a round. Having made the £100-a-week comment to raise a laugh, Tommy had to stick by it.
When I returned from Milan at the end of the year, I was actually offered £120 a week to go back to Chelsea and £60 a week to join Tottenham, the league and Cup double winners. Chelsea’s previous treatment of me had been so poor that I had little hesitation in choosing Spurs.
It was not until the Premier League and the Sky TV money in the 1990s that footballers’ wages lost all semblance of reality. Although I’ve never felt jealous of modern players, I do find it laughable to hear average footballers earning silly money. You can only hope that those who rake in £40,000 a week for sitting on the bench, will be raising a glass to 82-year-old Jimmy Hill this week.
The fallout from the John Terry case took a new twist when Rio Ferdinand laughed at a derogatory tweet about Ashley Cole that was sent following the Chelsea star’s acquittal from his racism charge on Friday afternoon. The term ‘choc ice’ was used to describe Ashley Cole and while Ferdinand got a sizeable reaction to his response “I hear you fella! Choc ice is classic! hahahahahahha!!” the lawyers of Cole claimed that although client was made aware of the tweets, he wouldn’t be making any official complaint given that he and Rio are such good friends.
Elsewhere in the news Fabio Capello set to take the Russian job; pressure mounts on the FA to charge John Terry, while Andre Villas-Boas remains impressed by Daniel Levy’s vision.
Headlines
Didier Drogba didn’t move for the money and insists that he wants to ‘help football develop in China’ after joining Shanghai Shenhua – [Guardian]
The pressure is mounting on the FA to charge John Terry, following the Chelsea star’s acquittal on Friday afternoon – [Guardian]
Andre Villas-Boas is confident his project at the club can succeed after being given assurances by Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy – [Sky Sports]
Fabio Capello is delighted that John Terry was cleared and feels vindicated over his decision to stand by him when England manager – [Daily Telegraph]
Demba Ba has rubbished reports that he is set to leave St James’ Park this summer – [Sky Sports]
PFA call for players to be sent off for X-rated rants at each other – [Independent]
Both Manchester clubs United and City are set to battle it out for Robin van Persie – [Daily Mail]
Real Madrid players are assuming Tottenham’s Luka Modric will be joining them next season – [Daily Mail]
Vurnon Anita is putting pressure on Ajax to win his dream move to Newcastle, according to his agent Harry Lulofs – [Mirror]
Lukas Podolski has urged Robin van Persie to stay on at Arsenal this season – [Sun]
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Chelsea looks set to beat Tottenham to the signature of Internacional star Oscar – [Express]
Please note – to view full the articles click on the sources
Sky Sports understands that Chelsea will make another offer for Tottenham star Luka Modric.
It will be the third time they have tried to sign the Croatian midfielder after having two previous bids of £22 million and £27 million rejected.
An offer of £30 million is now being prepared by the Stamford Bridge club and will be submitted early this week.
Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas is refusing to give up on landing the playmaker despite Tottenham insisting he isn’t for sale.
Modric is seen as a vital part of Villas-Boas’ plans as he continues to remodel the dressing room in West London.
Manager Harry Redknapp is keen to retain his services and has insisted that his star player is going nowhere.
“He told Sky Sports: We are not going to sell our best players, the likes of Modric and (Gareth) Bale. We’re looking to sell some fringe players but we have had no takers.”
The 25-year-ol is keen to leave White Hart Lane and believes he has been mistreated claiming agreement was in place to let him leave for a ‘big club’ after he signed a new contract last year.
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A transfer request was handed in during pre-season only to be rejected by chairman Daniel Levy who is adamant he will remain at the club.